Friday, November 4, 2011

Learn to take orders before you give them. Elders are elders because they do the work.

-- Jonathan Brower

I
just came back from a trip. It was an intense trip to an intense place.
This place was not predictable, far from it. I remember walking down
the street, through a marketplace and suddenly feeling like I was
peddling a bicycle. I looked down to see that the sidewalk was reseeding
from me. I looked to my right to see a rooftop pull up beside me. Down
the way there was a group of teens beating up an old lady in broad
daylight, with no shame. But the most disturbing part was the attitude
of the citizens of this place; they seemed to take all these occurrences
in stride, as if they were not out of the ordinary.This
world is marked by chaos. It is a world in which kindness may or may
not occur. It is a world where punishment may be severe, may be light
and may not even happen at all based on absolutely nothing because the
government may not have decided to go to work that day. But then, who
has time to hurt each other when they are worried about whether gravity
is going to perform it’s natural function from one minute to the next. I
am glad to have returned from that trip. I was unable to relax in that
atmosphere.But that is the definition of chaos; unpredictable behavior. Chaos does not mean everyone behaving badly,
one may choose to do good and one may choose to do bad and another may
choose indifference, that one person may be presented with the same
stimuli and choose differently. When we know that we cannot know what
may happen next, we tend to get nervous.For
instance, I remember the first--and only--time I went to a Bible Club
meeting in High School. I attended Coral Reef High School in the heart
of Richmond Heights. The meeting was held in the criminal justice room
where the mock trials were held. Coral Reef has a magnet program for
Law, so we had the privilege of having such rooms. It was a wide open
space and I was one of the first students to shuffle through the door.I
was met with greetings and welcomes and smiles. I was issued a seat in
the back corner of the room at the furthest point from the exit--where
there was no escape. Before too long, the room filled out. There must
have been upwards of fifty students packed into the mock trial room,
steadily buzzing for the meeting to start. I was comfortable. I had no
clue what to expect, but I figured it would be a great experience.Then
it started. Someone busted a note and the whole room popped up to their
feet and started singing and dancing and clapping and stomping and
banging on desks and getting their praise on. Before the song was
finished, the speaker jumped up onto the desk and began his message. He
was railing against (or maybe he was railing for) something very
important. There was no amplification in the room, but I wish there was
so we could turn his volume down a few notches. This was not so much
because his voice was bothering me, but since he was loud the people who
continued to sing and the other people who decided to start praying
through the message felt that God couldn’t hear them over the preacher.
So they got even louder.And
so the noise retaliation turned into noise escalation. From there
things only got worse. Several girls began busting out in some different
language, in addition to the singing, preaching and praying. So now
added to our screaming preacher, note busting singers, ground shaking
stompers, clappers and desk-bangers are a few jabbering tongue twisters.
Nothing good can come of this, I thought, this is not profitable for me.And that’s when they noticed me.It
was as though the blood of my unbelief was leaked into the shark
infested evangelical waters of the faithful. A few of them compassed me
round about. Included in their numbers was a tongue twister who decided
to lay her hands on me. Right when I thought things could be no
stranger. Right when I thought I had seen it all. I learned there was
more--to be felt. I promptly gathered my backpack that bore an elven
inscription and left those weirdos behind me.Titus
1:5 is a unique verse in the entirety of scripture. Paul’s vocabulary
specifically chooses a word that appears in no other place of scripture.
The word is pronounced epidiothaoo, and is translated into our word for
order. Read:

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appointelders in every city as I directed you

This
word indicates that correction must take place and order must be
restored. The reason why this instance is unique is because the
connotation is that things must be “set (back) in order.” To restore
means to but back to a previous (usually useful) state. There are
several implications that can clearly be made by this sense of the
verse.The
first implication is that there is a standard for order. We know God
loves order by casually reading the beginning of the Bible. In fact, the
entire narrative of scripture carries the theme of a theocratic order
which has been spurned and will soon be restored. This brings us to the
second implication which goes hand-in-hand with the first, this order is
obviously not being seen now. One explicit admission of this fact is
found in the Psalms and is re-iterated in the New Testament when the
writer states that The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet.
The enemies are not at the Lord’s feet right now, but they will be.
Order will be restored. And the restored order should begin with the
Church, since the Church is the group of special people in this world
who actively put themselves in subjection to Christ.The
next implication is with regard to the importance of this order, it is
important because God has established this order and is actively
re-instating it. In other words, God likes it. He genuinely receives
pleasure from observing his creation operate in the order He
established. And now for the final implication, as beings fashioned to
closely resemble the Creator, we like order too.Why
do you think I did not enjoy my “trip?” I was pleased to wake up from
my nonsensical imaginations to a firm reality where at least physical
laws govern the universe and will not change. Is it any wonder that
there are no countries that formally have no government? Anarchy rules
no body of people. There is always a group of individuals who meet some
criteria and are charged with the safe keeping of the whole group. The
Church should be the same.Those
individuals are called Elders, and Paul made sure Titus appointed
elders in every Cretan city. The Elders were to meet certain criteria,
which can be summarized by stating that they were to behave themselves
in a manner that reflected Christ-likeness. The goal was to appoint
Elders that could double as human examples of Christ. They were to
strive to attain this goal so that they may lead by example rather than
dictation.Some
say that the Elders must be publicly declared and empowered. Others
argue that the Elders are the ones who do the work of the Elder.
Truthfully, a sound biblical perspective finds a position between these
extremes. Church administration is clearly both an office and a
practice. It is an office because the Elder must have real governance. A
practice because all Christians are obligated to practice.Part
of the practice of all believers is to submit ourselves to the ruling
of the Elder. This essay opened with a quote from Jonathan Brower
stating that we must learn to take orders before giving them. We must
take orders from both God and those in charge of His flock (remember,
His flock includes all true Christians). It is only by submitting that
we can learn from others. We can then be fashioned into the tool that
God may chose to use in some administrative capacity in the future.Let us look one more time to the epistle written to Titus 2:15, reading through verse 2 of the next chapter:

You
must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them. You
have the authority to correct them when necessary, so don’t let anyone
disregard what you say.

Remind
the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should
be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not slander
anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and
show true humility to everyone.

Here
we have an example of what order should look like in the Church. A man
who has been given authority should be able to teach and encourage the
believers while bringing correction as necessary. This is to be done
boldly. Note that boldness need not be rude or classless by any means.The
reminder that should be delivered to the congregation is that they
should be Submissive, Obedient and Humble. We, as imitators of Christ,
should already know that these characteristics ought to permeate our
lives. We know this because these same characteristics permeated the
life that Christ lived on this earth. He submitted Himself to those who
were in authority. He was obedient to scripture, ready to do good even
in the face of persecution. He never spoke against anyone with a haughty
spirit.And
now we get at the heart of the Biblical teaching concerning Church
Roles, it is a display. A display to the World that we are citizens of
another kingdom. We respect one another as creations belonging to a
creator. We love one another in a special way, because of a common bond.
We strive to lift each other up. We sharpen one another, rejoicing when
the other grows because we can learn from them and--in turn--teach
others. We do all in the spirit of humility; like a well-oiled machine
we hum along, each element working in harmony with the other.If
this sounds like a dream, it is. Unlike the dream this essay began
with, the dream of unity is not mine, it is God’s. Specifically, it is
Jesus Christ’s as recorded in John 17. And He will receive what He
desires.